MAM
And a new journey begins…
MUMBAI: In June 2012, two senior executives Sudha Natrajan and Raghav Subramanian quit Lintas Initiative Media to commence a new journey together. The duo had announced the launch of their new venture named TMC Corporation.
The media veterans who have a combined experience of more than 40 years in the media industry have launched two businesses under TMC Corp- The Media Consultancy and The Media Café.
The Media Consultancy is a strategic consultancy specialising in new age consumer research, brand and return on investment (RoI) analytics and modelling, media content and training. The Media Cafe, on the other hand, is the first of its kind media, advertising and marketing hangout. It is where industry professionals can bond, learn, gossip and have fun.
Based in Gurgaon, the two have self-funded the entire venture as they wanted complete control of its operations. They are promoting the businesses through word-of-mouth publicity and there is a dedicated FB page for ‘The Media Café’.
Natrajan and Subramanian write about TMC Corp and the idea behind the birth of an enterprise with a twist…
After spending 20 years each in the industry, we both realised that we were getting a little bored with what we have been doing till now, and that the way forward was to carve out newer challenges for us. Hence was born TMC Corp. While about 80 per cent of our time would go into building our consultancy, which has been constructed in such a way that it addresses the gaps that we have experienced in the media agency product over the years, there was an alter ego that we wanted to satisfy.
The answer lay in The Media Café. The media industry is a people’s industry. The last 20 years we have personally gained the friendship of everyone in the industry. We felt that we needed to give something back, to offer a space that the fraternity can call their own, where they can hangout and feel a sense of belonging. Setting up the Café has also given us the much needed freshness and twist that we needed in the second chapter of our career. We have put this up in nine weeks, a record time for anyone who is familiar with the F&B industry.
Media has come a long way in the last 15 odd years, from a delivery arm within a full service agency to a marketing partner to clients. Primarily because clients realise that media is the biggest cost bucket within marketing. Hence the significance and accountability automatically rises.
This growth has also led to challenges. What started with and 2.5 per cent– 3 per cent is now hovering around 1 per cent to 2 per cent. So, now with just a thru-put offering it has become hard to sustain, more so with global hawks keeping an eye at the numbers. So gradually ‘value added services’ have found a place within media agencies. This ranges from research to analytics to content and so on. This also adds up as a good pitch conversation (though rapidly there is no differentiation here as well).
The next level of challenge for agencies has been delivering this promise and also selling through to clients. Media agencies find it hard to attract specialized talent in these areas both from a scope and learning perspective, as well as pay scale. This becomes a big hurdle to deliver the services. The other big challenge is of objectivity. Especially when it comes to research and analytics, clients are not very convinced of the objectivity. A marketing mix model might always end up saying client needs to spend more or that there is nothing wrong with the current media mix. Marketers like Unilever have a strict code to work with third party companies for their analytics.
TMC has the uniqueness with both its founders, having worked in the industry across functions over two decades. The idea is not to fix things (which are where most start ups come from) but to support and work with both advertisers and agencies to create a better space for the brands.
Our offering is across the line support for the thru-put. A sound strategy needs to be backed by research and analytics and a good brand engagement needs to be enabled through content. Our offering is both composite as well as modular. Outside of this, we will be designing varied training modules for both agencies and media owners. Such an offering from one place does not exist. That should differentiate TMC. What we are not is a media planning and buying agency which executes plans for brands.
We are an offering that is complementary to the way the industry is structured currently, and do not intend to displace any existing entity. So, our potential market is fairly large. The field we are playing in ranges from doing projects on content strategy to on-going research and analytics relationships directly with large to medium sized clients, comprehensive strategic solutions either with clients or for them through their agencies and to retainership relationships with large agency houses. This will entail formulating and putting together pitch strategies, value-add to existing strategic challenges with their clients, content/research/analytics solutions, and training – both on functional strategic skills, as well as grooming leaders/aiding succession planning. There are also analytics assignments we are exploring with clients overseas.
MAM
India’s financial sector spent less on TV ads in 2025 but flooded the internet
Banks, insurers and lenders cut tv ads as digital jumps, LIC and Muthoot lead tv and Axis Bank tops online
MUMBAI: India’s banking, financial services and insurance sector, one of the most prolific advertisers in the country, delivered a split verdict on media in 2025. It spent less on television, held its nerve in print, turned up the volume on radio and deluged the internet with a ferocity that left every other medium looking pedestrian. The picture that emerges from TAM AdEx’s cross-media report for the BFSI sector is of an industry in transition, still wedded to the news bulletin but increasingly seduced by the algorithm.
Television: a retreat with caveats
TV ad volumes for the BFSI sector fell 16 per cent in 2025 compared with 2024, a sharp reversal after two years of consistent growth that had pushed volumes 16 per cent above 2021 levels by 2023 and a further 7 per cent higher by 2024. Within 2025 itself, the drop was concentrated in the middle of the year: the second and third quarters saw ad volumes slide 35 per cent each against the first quarter, with a partial recovery of 13 per cent in the fourth.
The retreat did not reshuffle the deck. Life insurance retained first place among TV categories with 19 per cent of ad volumes, mortgage loans held second with 16 per cent, and the top ten categories together accounted for 82 per cent of all BFSI television advertising. The dominance of news channels was equally pronounced: news claimed 68 per cent of ad volumes, general entertainment channels a distant 14 per cent and movies 12 per cent. Together, news and GEC captured 82 per cent of the sector’s television spend. News bulletins alone took 48 per cent of programme-genre volumes, with feature films second at 12 per cent. Prime time, between 6pm and 11pm, drew 34 per cent of ad volumes, followed by afternoon at 22 per cent and morning at 20 per cent. A full 82 per cent of all ads ran between 20 and 40 seconds.
Life Insurance Corporation of India was the sector’s biggest TV spender with 11 per cent of ad volumes. Muthoot Financial Enterprises came second with 9 per cent, followed by National Payments Corporation of India at 6 per cent, Tata AIG General Insurance at 5 per cent and State Bank of India at 5 per cent. The top ten advertisers together accounted for 51 per cent of total TV volumes. Three names were new to the top ten in 2025: Tata AIG General Insurance, IIFL Finance and Tata Capital. At brand level, Muthoot Finance Loan Against Gold led with 9 per cent share, Tata AIG Health Insurance entered the top ten for the first time, and the top ten brands together contributed 35 per cent of ad volumes.
Print: the long climb continues
Print told a different story. Ad space for the BFSI sector has grown every year since 2021, rising 16 per cent in 2022, 30 per cent in 2023, 51 per cent in 2024 and 64 per cent in 2025, all measured against a 2021 baseline. Within 2025, ad space was flat in the second quarter but surged 46 per cent in the third and 33 per cent in the fourth compared with the first. Life insurance led print categories with 21 per cent of ad space, followed by mutual funds and banking services and products at 13 per cent each, and corporate financial institutes at 11 per cent. The top ten categories together took 82 per cent of print ad space. LIC led print advertisers with 6 per cent share, and the top ten together covered just 19 per cent of ad space, a reflection of how fragmented print spending remains. Three new entrants joined the top ten in 2025, with Billion Brains Garage Ventures the only exclusive presence not seen in 2024’s list. In the top ten brands, LIC dominated with a 2 per cent share, while Nippon India Mutual Fund rose to third position from fourth in 2024. English accounted for 62 per cent of print ad space, Hindi for 20 per cent. Business and finance publications took 59 per cent of the genre split. The south zone led regional spending with 33 per cent of print ad space, Bangalore topping that zone, while New Delhi and Mumbai were the leading cities nationally.
Radio: louder than ever
Radio ad volumes for the BFSI sector have climbed steadily, rising 12 per cent above 2021 levels in 2023, 36 per cent in 2024 and 45 per cent in 2025. The quarterly pattern within 2025 was volatile: a sharp drop of 43 per cent in the second quarter and 42 per cent in the third, followed by a near-full recovery in the fourth. Life insurance led radio categories with 22 per cent of volumes, banking services and products second at 14 per cent and corporate NBFCs third at 11 per cent. LIC of India held its position as the leading radio advertiser with 20 per cent of ad volumes; the top ten radio advertisers together covered 69 per cent. Muthoot Financial Enterprises led radio brands with 10 per cent share, five of the top ten brands belonged to LIC alone, and SBI Mutual Fund made a remarkable leap to fifth position from 272nd in 2024. Evening and morning time-bands together captured 84 per cent of radio ad volumes, with evenings at 44 per cent and mornings at 40 per cent. Maharashtra was the leading state for radio BFSI advertising with 18 per cent share; Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh together accounted for 43 per cent.
Digital: the five-times surge
If one number defines the 2025 BFSI advertising story, it is five. Digital ad impressions for the sector multiplied fivefold between 2021 and 2025, having already doubled in 2023 and doubled again in 2024 before the 2025 leap. Within the year, impressions dipped 19 per cent in the second quarter and 12 per cent in the third before recovering 8 per cent above the first quarter by the fourth. Banking services and products led digital categories with 27 per cent of impressions, life insurance and credit cards tied at 19 per cent each, and securities and sharebroking organisations fell from first place in 2024 to fourth in 2025. Axis Bank was the runaway leader among digital advertisers with 12 per cent of impressions, followed by ICICI Bank at 9 per cent, IDFC First Bank at 7 per cent and Kotak Mahindra Bank at 6 per cent. The top ten digital advertisers covered 59 per cent of impressions, and seven of them were new entrants compared with 2024, signalling rapid churn in the digital spending hierarchy. At brand level, Axis Bank led with 9 per cent, ICICI HPCL Super Saver Credit Card vaulted to third place from 921st in 2024, and six of the top ten digital brands were new to the list. Programmatic buying accounted for 91 per cent of all digital BFSI transactions; combined with ad networks, it captured 96 per cent.
The data from TAM AdEx paints the portrait of a sector that still believes in the power of the television news bulletin to sell insurance to the masses, but increasingly knows that the next generation of borrowers, investors and cardholders is scrolling, not watching. The race is now on to reach them before the algorithm serves up someone else’s loan offer first.
